What I’m Reading
Balancing Act: With home prices up 14.8% YOY in January and mortgage rates rising of late as well, fewer households are able to qualify for a mortgage. The beneficiary of this will likely be rental housing, both apartments and SFR. Marcus and Millichap
Leverage: The Massachusetts Superior Court is the latest to hold that the Doctrine of Frustration of Purpose discharges commercial tenants’ obligation to pay rent in some circumstances. Great news for tenants, not so good for Landlords. The National Law Review
Opportunity Knocks: Plunging apartment rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn are drawing bargain hunters. Bloomberg
Shocking: One year in, Berlin’s aggressive rent control ordnances are a disaster. Rents for older, rent-controlled apartments have fallen while those on newer, unregulated apartments have soared. To make matters worse, the rent controlled apartments are becoming impossible for tenants to find. It’s almost as if every credible economist on the left and right have been telling us this for decades, yet cities continue to resort to it when their own policies result in runaway housing costs. Bloomberg
Excess Capacity: The pandemic has left many offices, gyms, retail stores and restaurants closed for extended periods. Some landlords have converted these space to rent them out as temporary storage as a way to generate income. Neighbor.com, a startup that focuses on repurposing and monetizing empty space for storage and bills itself as AirBnb for self storage has been at the forefront of this. Globe Street
Chart of the Day
The household formation story is in tact for pretty much the entire decade. Interested to see how this updates once the 2020 Census data is released.
Source: Calculated Risk Blog
WTF
Insanity: Six Dr. Seuss books — including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” — will stop being published because of “racist and insensitive imagery.” Not-so-fun fact: you can still buy ‘Mein Kampf’ on Amazon but NOT ‘If I Ran the Zoo.’ Associated Press
I Have Nipples, Focker…: Some health experts are asking to substitute the term “chest milk” or “human milk” for “breast milk”, in order to be more inclusive. KUTV
Basis Points – A candid look at the economy, real estate, and other things sometimes related.
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